‘I’m dreaming of a white Christmas’ sang Bing Crosby, as he then placed a tenner on Dundee to be blanketed by snow on the big day.
Okay, we may have embellished the details somewhat.
There does tend to be a ferocious appetite for a white Christmas betting market, however, and many of the leading bookmakers have duly obliged with their prices for many of the major cities across the UK.
Meanwhile, an ‘interesting’ weather forecast for the next few weeks offers confidence that some of those odds are a touch on the generous side….
Dig Out Your Thermal Vest: It’s Coming Home
When the bookmakers bring in their odds of this being the coldest December on record to 4/6, and that somewhere in the UK will experience a White Christmas to a crazy 4/9, you know the cold stuff is coming.
A frosty blast from Iceland is set to bring plunging temperatures and snow this week, and the longer term forecast suggests that the cold snap could hang around well into the festive period.
The Met Office’s Becky Mitchell said: “It was quite chilly in some places last night, with air coming down from the north from the direction of Iceland.
“We’re still in a northerly flow today and it’ll feel quite chilly in some places but there’s no snow in the forecast today.
“It’s quite dry throughout much of the UK so dry, cold and bright. The lowest temperature last night was recorded in Strathallen in Perthshire at -3.4.”
If you’re attending your work’s Christmas do this week, be sure to wrap up warm!
White North of the Border?
As tends to be the case for those in the north of the UK, the worst of the festive weather appears to be heading your way.
The big Scottish cities are the favourites with the bookies to see a dusting on Christmas morning, with Aberdeen (6/5), Edinburgh (6/4) and Glasgow (6/4) all preparing the salt for their driveways ahead of granny’s arrival.
As for England, it is Newcastle where the forecasters are looking first and foremost.
The Angel of the North could have a white look to it, with the bookies offering 9/4 on a White Christmas on Wearside. It would be the first in Newcastle since 2010.
Moving southwards the prices tend to drift; presumably like the snow expected to fall. Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds are all priced at a tempting 7/2, with Birmingham a touch longer at 4/1.
Will there be chaos in the capital this Christmas time? The bookmakers aren’t overly convinced, with odds of 5/1 suggesting that London will probably stay clear of the white stuff.
Belfast (3/1), Dublin (9/2) and Cardiff (9/2) are also at the longer end of the market, so if you want to experience a genuine White Christmas you may want to head north of the border this year.
History Books May Need to Be Burned to Keep Scotland Warm
Remarkably, the north of Scotland has ‘enjoyed’ a White Christmas in 34 of the last 56 years!
In England, the classic north/south divide comes into play once more. Northerners have sampled a snowy Yuletide on 26 occasions since 1960, while southerners experiencing likewise on just ten occasions.
In Northern Ireland and Wales, there have been 16 White Christmases in the past six decades.
Will those counts be altered this year?